Dreaded News SB 10

                One morning I arrived at my high school and heard some dreaded news—there’s a bear in town!  It was this 20 foot man eating monster roaming around town eating everything in its path.  The next day the local paper released it weekly edition and sure enough on the front page was picture of the bear hanging out on the railroad tracks.  Tips about how to prevent the bear from coming on your property and the reassurance that the local police department knew about the situation was also in the article.  The fact the DNR wouldn't come and take the bear away from the community still frighten many residents.  By never being exposed to a black bear in town, residents and I were all of sudden worried about what the bear could do since all we have been exposed to our entire lives is that bears eat humans and create destruction.

                When I was younger, Bears were given a bad rap in movies and on the news.  I only heard of the instances when bears mulled people and never heard of the many bears that are afraid of humans.  The media both on that frightful day and in my younger years always gave bears a bad rap.  Something new walked into town that day and we were afraid of that new thing due to past experiences with the media.

                The media in this instance set the agenda about our belief of bears.  They were the ones to report negative bear stories in order to install fear in the public and increase interest in their programs.  By having the authority of a reputable news source, our local paper was able to start the story off with scaring us about the presence of bears. By having the authority they had, the paper was able to create concern about an animal that wasn't much of a threat at all.  In fact that bear was scared of us humans.       

 Here I chose two pictures to represent what I thought bears were.  Bear 1 is the perception I had of bears before I've seen them.  I believed all bears to be big scary animals.  Bear 2 a black bear which is much smaller and most of the time afraid of humans.

https://www.google.com/search?q=black+bear&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=LMJOU4enAcqzyASkuoLIAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=_x8o5hlph2tI-M%253A%3BYqJ3qKLfG_StIM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fbeartrust-dev1.org%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F05%252Fblack-bear-cub.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fbeartrust.org%252Famerican-black-bear%3B903%3B606

https://www.google.com/search?q=black+bear&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=LMJOU4enAcqzyASkuoLIAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#q=scary+black+bear&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=nOGhCqS9U7bL4M%253A%3BnZGit-6LcCughM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fegotvonline.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F07%252Fspecies-spotlight-grizzly-bear-brown-mouth-open-black-nose-attacking-growling-biting-photo.jpg%253F41ed4f%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fegotvonline.com%252F2011%252F07%252F07%252F25-pissed-off-grizzly-bears%252F%3B486%3B365

Powerful Women? SB9

                Today in class we learned about how the media portrays different people as less human.  The same can be said about women in government.  Is it alderman or alderwoman?  Alderwoman is just weird to say.  That’s because having a women in a city council requires you to change the title.  Back in history women haven’t been given the opportunity to always pursue jobs in the government sector.  Today however, it’s still a battle to overcome the stereotypes of being a weak woman in a powerful role.

                When Hilary Clinton was running for president, one of the questions I would hear from others was, “How is this woman going to handle a man’s job?”   Now I’m not saying that Clinton represents all women, but that is a stereotype that any woman will have to overcome if they run for a major office.  To me, it seemed that in order to run for president you had to be a man or else you weren’t qualified.  Being a woman, Clinton was considered less than a human because she was entering the man’s world.  Being the president, situations are tough and stressful and women don’t possess the human qualities to handle those difficult situations—or at least that is the ideology of the presidential role. 

                The media today has a lot of influence about who gets elected, because after all, they provide the knowledge to many Americans.  If the media portrays woman weak in debates and speeches, the viewers will pick up on that and believe that women are weak candidates.  If the media portrays a woman presidential candidate as strong and the men as weak, it will set up an interesting election.  Women today are still thought of as the weaker gender and can’t handle the stresses of high power jobs.  By thinking of women as weak, we are really just thinking of them as less of a human in that they can’t perform human work. 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F01014%2F16-clinton-crying_1014190c.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Flocal-elections%2F3247456%2FUS-election-2008-Top-25-turning-points-in-the-campaign-13-25.html&h=287&w=460&tbnid=XBtEnkMKImZ46M%3A&zoom=1&docid=JI6T2KwmoE66PM&ei=5GBFU7b1O6OWyAHk5YDQCg&tbm=isch&ved=0CFMQhBwwAA&iact=rc&dur=265&page=1&start=0&ndsp=17   

Here is a picture taken of Hilary Clinton tearing up By including pictures like these in media reports, Clinton can be shown as a weak candidate and is not ready for a powerful position.

Monopoly SB-8

              Sociology Monopoly takes the game to a whole different level.  This game relates to real life because of the amount of differences that were apparent.  White and Hispanic people had more of an opportunity to make more money and have opportunities which would help them meet middle class goals.  Single females and African Americans saw less cash and less opportunity because they were more likely to be in jail and stay there. 

                The jail seemed to be a pretty popular place for the single females and African Americans.  While staying in jail, those categories of people did not have look forward to spending money and they knew what their fate was going to be in jail, more time. Those people while in jail were able to avoid the higher costs of living as the White and Hispanic people kept raising the prices on property.  Jail could be considered a safe place because they were able to stay there for free and avoid the costs of the outside world. 

                Another thing I noticed was the amount of inequality which was present.  Because I’m white I get to experience a greater chance of receiving more income than other races.  It’s also more likely that I will own more property.  According to the chapter “Discrimination in a low-wage labor market,” a team of White, Latino and a black person would go out into the community and attempt to apply for a job.  More times than not the black person would be rejected or flat out denied in an interviewed.  The black person may also have been offered a job which was below what they were originally applying for.  The white and Latino people would be considered more heavily for jobs.  Even if they were turn down for their original job, they were more likely than the black person to receive a suggestion to apply for a higher up job. 

                That chapter relates to the Monopoly game in that whites and Latino’s are far better off than black people in life.  In real life, black’s find difficulties applying for jobs, let alone making enough money to take care of themselves.  White’s and Latino’s find an easier time receiving jobs and making enough money to live comfortably.

Institutionalization SB 7

                Social institutions exist around us in an infinite number of ways.  Take for instance the media.  Cable news programs will teach viewers all about what is occurring in society.  They cover a number of topics in which they hope that the viewer’s find them interesting.  Some of the formal rules that these media news outlook follow are federal laws and the companies own policies.  Federal laws such as censoring disturbing language and disturbing pictures are put in place to protect the viewer’s mindsets.  The company may also enact their own policies (formal rules) as to how the TV anchors are to dress, what to report, and what stance to take when reporting a topic. 

                Informal norms are also highly considered when the news programs are planning on what to report.  These include the social norms of reporting.  You don’t want to be reporting things that the viewer’s will disagree with so much that they stop tuning into your news program.  Some informal norms include reporting the obvious—like political campaigns.  Everybody needs to feel like they know something about a political candidate before they go and vote so you better make sure you include an interview or two on your program. 

                The enforcement of the norms and rules can get costly for the news companies.  For instance the major consequence of the loss of viewers can create havoc on TV ratings.  Without those precious viewers, the news companies wouldn't last long on the air.  Another enforcement technique the government uses are fines.  If companies are showing inappropriate footage, they could be slapped with a fine and a bad rap from Uncle Sam.  Enforcement is a way in which to control institutions such as news companies.  Whether or not the institutions follow the rules, they will see consequences.  They may see positives such endorsements from celebrities or negatives such as a decrease in popularity.

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This image demonstrates the globalization of the news media outlets and that the whole world is impacted by what’s reported.  A majority of people receive their news from these outlets and the whole world is affected by their responses to the news.  Due to the rules and informal norms that are enacted on the media, news stories are carefully picked to receive a positive response from the community.  The institution of the news media outlets affect everyone worldwide.